Melody Maker, March 1, 1986: Difference between revisions
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The cause has been worthwhile, however. ''King Of America'' is a resounding return to form and probably his most compelling and assured record in five years. Like ''Get Happy!!'' whose emotional frankness it recalls, ''King Of America'' reaches us after an unsettled year for its author. ''Get Happy!!'' appeared in the wake of the infamous Costello-Bonnie Bramlett-Stephen Stills brawl in Columbus, Ohio, from which Costello emerged in the eyes of the sanctimonious American press as a sinsister bigot, with the commercial momentum of his career severely interrupted by the ensuing, vindictive backlash. ''King Of America'' arrives after a period of similar turmoil. Following the critical and commercial failure of ''Goodbye Cruel World'' in 1984, Costello had suspended The Attractions, toured only as a solo act, usually with the American songwriter T-Bone Burnett for company and support. He has produced [[The Pogues]] and [[Big Heat: Watch Me Catch Fire (single)|The Big Heat]]; he has been involved in the score of Julien Temple's ''Absolute Beginners''; he and T-Bone released "The Peoples' Limousine" under the name of [[The Coward Brothers]]; he appeared on [[Eurythmics]]' ''[[Eurythmics: Be Yourself Tonight|Be Yourself Tonight]]'' and made a memorable appearance at [[Concert 1985-07-13 London|Live Aid]]. Mostly, though, he's kept his head down and in his absence, as it were, rumours began to swarm; he had become an alcoholic; he was creatively bankrupt; he'd stopped writing songs, he couldn't write any songs; his private life was in several stages of turmoil; he was going through a painful divorce. | The cause has been worthwhile, however. ''King Of America'' is a resounding return to form and probably his most compelling and assured record in five years. Like ''Get Happy!!'' whose emotional frankness it recalls, ''King Of America'' reaches us after an unsettled year for its author. ''Get Happy!!'' appeared in the wake of the infamous Costello-Bonnie Bramlett-Stephen Stills brawl in Columbus, Ohio, from which Costello emerged in the eyes of the sanctimonious American press as a sinsister bigot, with the commercial momentum of his career severely interrupted by the ensuing, vindictive backlash. ''King Of America'' arrives after a period of similar turmoil. Following the critical and commercial failure of ''Goodbye Cruel World'' in 1984, Costello had suspended The Attractions, toured only as a solo act, usually with the American songwriter T-Bone Burnett for company and support. He has produced [[The Pogues]] and [[Big Heat: Watch Me Catch Fire (single)|The Big Heat]]; he has been involved in the score of Julien Temple's ''Absolute Beginners''; he and T-Bone released "The Peoples' Limousine" under the name of [[The Coward Brothers]]; he appeared on [[Eurythmics]]' ''[[Eurythmics: Be Yourself Tonight|Be Yourself Tonight]]'' and made a memorable appearance at [[Concert 1985-07-13 London|Live Aid]]. Mostly, though, he's kept his head down and in his absence, as it were, rumours began to swarm; he had become an alcoholic; he was creatively bankrupt; he'd stopped writing songs, he couldn't write any songs; his private life was in several stages of turmoil; he was going through a painful divorce. | ||
According to the ''NME'', the final authentication of these rumours was provided by the release of | According to the ''NME'', the final authentication of these rumours was provided by the release of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" as a trailer for the new LP. "An undisguised plea for compassion," declared Donny Kelly in his now celebrated review. Mr Kelly went onto describe Costello as in a creative slump, allude to his drink problem and the record itself as a "landmark in the nosedive of one of the great pop talents of the last decade". Costello's work has often inspired obsessive analysis, but this seemed journalistic presumption taken to quite bumptious extremes. Upon its arrival, however, ''King Of America'' has successfully checked the gossip. ''KOA'' finds Costello refreshed after the strained conceits of ''Punch The Clock'' and ''Goodbye Cruel World''. Adopting a lucid, very straightforward writing style that largely abandons the slickly orchestrated word play that by his last releases was becoming wearisome, Costello has rarely written so affectingly. Or addressed his audience so directly: he sounds like he's writing songs again, not polishing devious epigrams. | ||
Musically, too, there's a welcome break from recent forms. Produced by Costello, T-Bone and Larry Hirsch and recorded in the studio that during the Fifties had played host to Frank Sinatra, ''KOA'' makes spectacular use of the peerless musicianship of James Burton, Ron Tuft, Jerry Scheff, Jim Keltner — "the wildest drummer I've ever worked with" — and supreme jazzers Ray Brown and Earl Palmer. Former Costello stalwarts The Attractions appear on only one track, the controversial "Suit Of Lights", which has been widely written up as Declan's final farewell to the Elvis Costello persona, a notion that Costello has carefully encouraged without emphatically endorsing it. | |||
Costello had arrived for this interview looking | |||
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Revision as of 16:40, 15 June 2013
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